Competitive Pokemon History - Blastoise Quiz

Answer: No

Blastoise's movepool was quite bad, not giving it too many good options. Its stats were also quite mediocre. This meant Blastoise was generally outclassed as a Water type in standard play by Lapras, a Pokémon with more bulk, firepower, and a much better movepool. Lapras notably got STAB on its Ice type attacks, meaning it could threaten Zapdos and Grass types in the tier far more than Blastoise could.

As a point of reference, Blastoise cannot even 3HKO Zapdos with Blizzard in the tier, while Lapras only needs a small amount of chip damage to 2HKO Zapdos with the move. Lapras also had access to Thunderbolt to handily defeat Articuno and easily defeat other Water types in the tier.

The only minor thing Blastoise had over Lapras was access to Earthquake to give it a slightly better matchup against Gengar than Lapras did.

This was still not enough to seriously warrant use over Lapras, and Blastoise began its competitive career as an UnderUsed Pokémon.

Answer: Rapid Spin

In a Spikes-centric meta, having a Rapid Spinner was a good thing to have. This was especially the case when Spikes + Sand + Toxic stall teams became a meta defining team archetype, where trainers not using such teams began to rush for countermeasures.

Sadly, Blastoise was usually not the first choice for a Rapid Spinner. It was generally overlooked in favor of Forretress, Starmie and Cloyster. Forretress had better bulk, key immunities to sand and toxic damage, and could check prominent meta threats that Blastoise would get steamrolled by, such as Fire Blast-less Snorlax and Exeggutor. Starmie had stronger offensive stats and immediate recovery in Recover, which let it pose much more of a threat than Blastoise did. Finally, Cloyster was in the same boat as Starmie, though it traded away Recover in exchange for being a good deal bulkier and having a more useful secondary Ice typing.

Blastoise was decent enough in standard play, but it still did not see the usage statistics to be OverUsed, and settled into the UU tier. There, Rapid Spinning was a lot less important due to the lack of good Spikes users running around, which made Blastoise into a genuinely mediocre Pokémon for the tier.

Answer: Newcoming Pokemon and mechanics negatively hindered Blastoise's competition while positively impacting Blastoise itself

Forretress could do absolutely nothing to Skarmory, the best Spiker in the tier, at all. Blastoise, on the other hand, could hit it very hard with Surf, potentially 2HKO it if running Hidden Power Electric, and as such, could more reliably keep Spikes off the field than Forretress could.

While Cloyster and Starmie could do the same against Skarmory, Cloyster was negatively impacted by the tier's power level, specifically new threats in Metagross and Salamence which happened to dominate it quite thoroughly. Starmie was thus the last Pokémon who gave Blastoise serious competition for its role, though its secondary Psychic typing opened up problems against Pokémon like Tyranitar, who Blastoise had a positive matchup against.

Answer: It checked the three best Pokemon in the tier

UnderUsed Blastoise almost never ran Rapid Spin due to the lack of viable Spikes users in the tier. Lunatone, Solrock and Gligar struck fear into teams of all archetypes in generation 3 UnderUsed, and Blastoise could easily stop any and all of them from doing anything at all, much less rampaging through the average team like they otherwise could. With a Rest/Sleep Talk set, using Surf and either Ice Beam or Reflect as its other two moves, Blastoise's dynamic was simple but all too necessary for the tier. Pokémon like Kangaskhan, who needed Lunatone, Solrock and Gligar weakened or out of the way in order to sweep, greatly appreciated Blastoise facilitating their removal.

At worst, Solrock could defeat Blastoise with Explosion, but it could only do this if it sacrificed itself, meaning Blastoise had still done its job.

Answer: Water Spout

Only five Pokémon at the time had access to Water Spout: Kyogre, who was banned to Ubers, Octillery and Wailord, who were too slow to make good use of the move, Smeargle, who flat out could not use the move viably with its pathetic offenses, and Blastoise.

A Choice Specs, full HP Water Spout would do some serious damage to the opponent, even running off of Blastoise's so-so Special Attack stat. Its Base 78 speed with investment would outspeed walls, or could be used alongside a Choice Scarf to outspeed offensive threats without scarves of their own.

When Blastoise's HP got too low to use Water Spout, Hydro Pump could pick up right where it left off. If Blastoise got underneath 25% of its health, its Torrent ability would activate, and Hydro Pump would now be even stronger than a full HP Water Spout. Though Blastoise generally didn't need to use its other moves, it commonly ran Ice Beam and Hidden Power Grass as coverage, which could be used by an experienced player, one good at predicting an opposing Dragon, Grass or Water type switch in.

Answer: Rain Dish

As Blastoise was unviable in standard play, and rain teams were not really seen below OverUsed, Rain Dish was usually not too helpful. Torrent was still generally the ability of choice, allowing a low HP Blastoise to be more threatening.

Answer: It got a much better movepool to work with

With a number of teammates valuing a field bereft of Stealth Rock, such as the offensive juggernauts Darmanitan and Snorlax, Blastoise's niche as a Rapid Spinner returned this generation. With access to Scald and Dragon Tail, stopping a Blastoise Rapid Spin was extremely difficult. Spiritomb, an excellent answer to Rapid Spin Blastoise the previous generation, would be rendered useless if Scald burned it, while its ability to threaten Blastoise back was quite minimal. RestTalk Spiritomb could be removed from the field with Dragon Tail, with subsequent attempts at switching back in allowing Blastoise to keep it asleep thanks to the fifth gen's new sleep mechanics, outdamage its leftovers, and eventually win one-on-one.

The only Pokémon who could reliably spinblock a Blastoise was Rotom, who was prime setup bait for Snorlax even if entry hazards were still on the field.

Answer: Mega Launcher

Mega Launcher grants a 50% boost to moves such as Hydro Pump, Scald, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse and Aura Sphere. A Mega Launcher boosted Hydro Pump coming off of Mega Blastoise's 135 base Special Attack was something to be feared, even nailing Pokémon resisting the move for big damage in the UnderUsed tier. In UU, Mega Blastoise was easily one of the best Pokémon in the tier, functioning as both a wallbreaker and Rapid Spinner in one. Dark Pulse getting a Mega Launcher boost meant absolutely no Ghost types could stop Mega Blastoise from removing entry hazards from play.

Sadly, Mega Blastoise was still a rather underwhelming pick for standard play. Taking up a Mega slot was rather suboptimal for a good-but-not-great Rapid Spinner with decent-but-not-great wallbreaking power. Starmie could offer both of those traits, have more longevity with Recover, and notably not take up a Mega slot. A team with an open, flexible Mega slot could make use of Mega Blastoise, but it was generally a better idea to look elsewhere.

Answer: There were many prominent threats in the tier who resisted Water

Roserade, Virizion, Milotic, Slowking, Slowbro, Suicune, Florges, Porygon2 and Snorlax are just a small laundry list of Pokémon who Mega Blastoise could do nothing against with, say, Hydro Pump or Scald. As such, a typical Mega Blastoise set consisted of Dark Pulse, Aura Sphere, Ice Beam and Rapid Spin. Dark Pulse was used to prevent spinblocking, Aura Sphere hit Porygon2, Snorlax and Umbreon very hard, Ice Beam hit the aforementioned Grass types pretty hard, and Rapid Spin's purpose was pretty obvious- remove entry hazards. All-Out Attacking Mega Blastoise, removing Rapid Spin for a Water move, was a mediocre pick for the tier, lacking utility or particularly noteworthy wallbreaking power.

Answer: No

Blastoise has encountered numerous problems within this timeframe that have stopped it from ever enjoying serious success in standard play. Its base stats, its movepool and the wide competition for its niche and the opportunity cost of using it are things which have plagued even its Mega Evolution from ever being a serious threat in the tier.